Why We Should Watch Less News • Hacker News Board

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#21

Post by heartles » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

beat wrote: post #16

adiusmus wrote: post #13

This has been true for the last 4 decades. Most news is designed to make you angry, afraid or sometimes happy. Mostly manipulation and deception. Even the news cycle is nonsense. You probably won’t remember what happened 2 years ago on a random Wednesday.

Most news is designed to sell you cars and laundry detergent. More to the point, you're not the customer. You're the product. Advertisers are the customer. So the news isn't really meant to inform, but rather to encourage sticking around to see what happens next. Appeal to baser emotions works well for that. Think of it that way, and people asking for cute kitten pics online because they're having a bad day is functi…

I will say, that's one reason why I've been tending towards NPR/PBS for my news source. It seems more likely to me that I am the customer when there aren't any advertisers (besides the occasional "supported by" blurb that lasts a few seconds).

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#22

Post by godelmachine » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:51 PM UTC

iamthirsty wrote: post #3

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #2

"...But the question we need to ask ourselves here is not whether such behaviors (or the cover-ups of such behaviors) are outrageous, but rather why we have become such insatiable consumers of these outrages? What does it cost us?..." Exactly. There are four billion people on the planet. We are all connected instantaneously. If there isn't something happening every minute that's completely disgusting and outrageous,…

> There are four billion people on the planet. There is actually almost 8 billion, now.

I was going to say the same.

Maybe he meant 4 billion electronically connected people on the planet.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#23

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:52 PM UTC

chrisco255 wrote: post #14

beat wrote: post #5

OMG THIS. I recently deleted social media apps from my phone, and replaced most of my social media diet with reading books again, like I did in the good olde days before the internet. I feel... healthier. Smarter, for sure. After reading a ton of philosophy and history recently, the day-to-day political debate on the internet looks like nonsense most of the time now. And when I see someone is wrong on the internet, I…

Nothing wrong with that, sounds very healthy, but does it also mean you're not engaging in one of the most influential public forums of our time? Why do you think it won't last?

[deleted]

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#24

Post by godelmachine » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:53 PM UTC

I think the spirit of this article goes as far back as Henry David Thoreau's time. He asked us to give up newsdailies in favor of classics and literature.

Hope many will concur.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#25

Post by pg314 » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:54 PM UTC

have_faith wrote: post #7

If you where to move your news reading to once weekly, what news sources would you use to catch up on anything useful you might have missed in that time? traditional online news outlets are too fast paced for this purpose I think, very high signal to noise.

The Economist.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#26

Post by open-source-ux » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:55 PM UTC

If you don't want to watch TV news, try listening to radio news instead. I don't know what the situation is in the US, but most of Europe has publicy-funded broadcasters who provide radio as well TV services. In fact, between click-bait headlines in newspapers and emotive pictures on TV, radio is often ignored as another source of news. Most public radio stations in Europe are available to listen by all (i.e. not geo-blocked like the TV stations).

I don't think it's healthy to avoid news, but be selective about how you get it and don't rely on a single source.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#27

Post by nemild » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:58 PM UTC

I write a bunch about this. There is often a sense that the more news we consume, the more informed we are. My research shows the opposite, where where news gives us a deeply biased view of the world ( https://www.nemil.com/s/part3-horror-films.html ).

For many of us, we use media to make important decisions — and a lot of the coverage isn't well suited for that purpose.

In this social media era especially, so much of the news you see covered is a function of what will get engagement. It even applies to things like which wars will be covered in the US (one NY Times reporter makes this point in coverage of Yemen vs Syria).

Here's a media literacy guide I wrote:

https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media

(BTW, media literacy is esp critical for engineers, given how much thinly disguised marketing well funded tech companies put in front of engineers, esp in cryptocurrencies. See this media literacy guide for software engs: https://github.com/nemild/hack-the-media/blob/master/softwar... )

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#28

Post by georgeecollins » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 4:59 PM UTC

The economic and social factors that have caused news to become less than helpful have been understood for a long time and clearly described. It is just that the warnings went unheeded and the problem has become extreme. Rather than watch the news (or go to a news website) read these excellent books: - The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner - Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

Rather than get distracted by news trivia, learn something from these books that have stood the test of time.

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#29

Post by Reedx » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 5:03 PM UTC

Serious question: Is there any good argument for consuming the news at all at this point?

Re: Why We Should Watch Less News

#30

Post by nemild » Thu, Aug 30, 2018, 5:11 PM UTC

abhiminator wrote: post #19

I recall reading and saving (in my Instapaper) a super relevant essay[0] written by a Swiss entrepreneur/author -- Rolf Dobelli -- that talks about how news systematically alters your 'risk-map' of the world, thus making you worry about things that'll almost never affect you while distracting you from things that actually might; as an example, the author talks about how terrorism is overrated and chronic stress is un…

Here's my data analysis justifying Dobelli's thesis:

How Media Fuels our Fear of Western Terrorism https://www.nemil.com/s/part2-terrorism.html

The deaths that are most covered are a tiny fraction (https://www.nemil.com/s/part3-horror-films.html

There's also a fair bit of psychology research on how news coverage of vivid deaths increases PTSD, you can see one link in my first piece above.

This coverage makes sense when you are focusing on newsworthiness and engagement — but is very flawed for good decision making.